Green Schools Revolution Shared Learning Event at the University of Plymouth!
On the 1st of July 2024, three schools in the south-west who have been taking part in Green Schools Revolution (GSR) came together and spent the day sharing what they have learnt through their experience of the projects, as well as having an opportunity to take part in a variety of workshops.
The day started bright and early for the GSR staff, who arrived at the University of Plymouth and were greeted by Dr Paul Warwick, an associate professor and the Centre for Sustainable Futures Lead. We were soon joined by Hele’s School, City College and King Alfred School, each with a number of students who had been involved in GSR over the academic year.
After a quick welcome and introduction by the GSR staff, Paul, and Fiona Blake from the Devon Wildlife trust, we did a few fun icebreaker activities. Then each school gave a 20-minute presentation on what they’d achieved and learnt. First, Hele’s School took the stage and started their presentation to show their impressive progression with Wilding Schools. The school’s eco club took us through the success of their goals to wild their school, like planting 90 trees, taking part in no mow may in order to protect different plant and animal species more as well as doing litter picks around the school grounds to make the area safer for wildlife and also nicer for students and staff at the school. The students also came up with a fun game that the audience could participate in, which involved determining which species of flower are good pollinators. As a student staff member who works on Climate Action Plans, I found this interactive game insightful as it isn’t something I was aware of. Hele’s School’s presentation was very clear and strongly portrayed the fabulous wilding work they have done with us at GSR!
Next up, it was City College’s presentation about their experience of taking part in Teach the Teacher! Within their presentation, the students had a nice balance of factual slides to educate all audience members while also including the elements of the project that particularly worked for them, giving the presentation a personal touch thus making it even more engaging! I was impressed that 15 members of staff from a variety of subjects took part in their college’s Teach the Teacher session. This is what the project is all about - educating all teachers on how climate education should be involved in all subjects! Some feedback the students at City College received was how eco-anxiety was a concept unfamiliar to many teachers, meaning they wouldn’t really know how to support a young person who may be experiencing eco-anxiety. This just goes to show how important broad and diverse climate education is - it is so much more than just fossil fuels and temperature. This is reflected within TTT, as there is a whole section on intersectionality and the importance of understanding how social justice links to climate change. The students also touched on the importance of student voice and how doing this project has influenced them. They then finished on a very strong statement about how you must “tackle the root” and “you can’t just remove the leaves!”
The last school to present was King Alfred and their wilding club took this presentation into their hands. They also presented about Wilding Schools, so it was very interesting to hear their different experiences and how they compared to Hele’s school! The students started their presentation with an outstandingly long list of all of the active things they have been doing as a school to ensure it is friendly to the wildlife and local environment since doing their initial mapping of the school towards the end of 2023, including hiding camera traps around the school grounds, letting the grass grow longer, and creating homes for reptiles and woodlice. All these many actions add up to help create a much healthier, biodiverse local environment, allowing for nature to bloom. The Wilding Club continued to tell us about their trip to the Somerset Wildlands, where they found that as a school, they created a more biodiverse area in 2 years of rewilding, than the reserve had in 40 years! The feedback from King Alfred’s experience with Wilding Schools was fantastic and their presentation was fascinating - I cannot believe how much they have achieved in such a small space of time. I as well as all the other GSR staff members were incredibly impressed with the sheer amount of work and determination these pupils have been putting in to protect the environment near and far through the means of hands on action, changing rules and school policies as well as educating people on the importance of this and climate justice as a whole.
Next, Holly and Mariana from the GSR team hosted a workshop focusing on the reflection on what challenges you could face in schools when it comes to climate justice and education as well as completing the Green Schools Revolution projects. The workshop included an activity considering the different problems and solutions, followed by a panel featuring different students, staff, and scenarios. The session finished with Holly and Mariana handing out little brown envelopes containing native wildflower seeds suitable for Devon, and everyone wrote a pledge on the envelope to symbolise their seeds of hope!
Lunch was kindly provided by the University of Plymouth - all the food was vegetarian and vegan, making it more sustainable – after which Paul led us on a tour of the Sustainability Hub, which includes features like a vast green wall of living plants on the exterior of the building. The University uses this hub to hold events promoting sustainability, involving students, staff and partners, while also offering a collaborative space for sustainability research and education.
After lunch, Paul led a workshop on education for sustainable development. During this workshop, Paul spoke about the new upcoming undergraduate course on this topic at the University of Plymouth. Paul went on to engage the students in a fun activity where they drew their own eco monsters, representing the ways they would help the planet! This allowed the students to all come together in groups and talk through inspiring actions - there were such fabulous conversations and ideas for how to be more sustainable! They then wrote down their sources of hope on leaf sticky notes to close the workshop with coming together to make a hope tree -a lovely way to end the workshop as it allows for inspiration and reduces chances of climate anxiety.
Our final workshop of the day was run by Emily and Lucy who are GSR student staff, focusing on the use of ecological handprints as opposed to carbon footprints. The workshop covered the misconceptions and issues surrounding measuring your sustainability using just carbon footprint, particularly the way it shifts blame to the individual and ignores the level of responsibility that person has, as well as their ability to change. An ecological handprint focuses on the positive actions a person does, rather than the negative impacts. The students wrote five of their own pledges to make their own ecological handprint! We had some great pledges, for example, buying second hand, taking part in litter picks, eating less meat, walking or cycling more and protesting for action!
This Green Schools Revolution Day at the University of Plymouth was so valuable and provided great inspiration alongside education and empowerment for the students, teachers and staff at GSR. We could not have done this without the amazing help from Dr Paul Warwick and the University for having us, as well as the talented Devon Tipping who came and did a live illustration of the day for us, and most importantly, without the amazing schools and colleges who work with us to help create a more sustainable planet while helping the next generation of change makers! Who knows where we will go next?
